《Dragon Fragment》v3c1 Those who wait

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-25 days after Nefiru met Shaila. Midnight. Karias's POV-

Another successful mating season... I concluded recalling the half a year travels around the world.

I Drumakaria Tenebrum Zhuryoh, the sole survivor of my Darkness clan and tasked with the artificial worldwide Dragon mating season for the past nine hundred years is returning to my lair in the Northern Desert of the Arundo landmass. Flying at high speed towards the west makes my light brown Tunic flutter and exposing the darkened skin of my humanoid body to the cool wind that indicates the approach of Winter.

It was eerily quiet without the usual pursuers or large Dragon-killings, and it feels like the calm before the storm in the words of a particular dragon that has been missing for centuries, but it was certainly productive with many individuals born talented enough to reach Divine Rank. Also confirmed a few new Divines as well as others who were killed during my past four-year slumber, but most of them don't want to become soldiers despite the benefits offered and just cast away their true bodies after reaching Divine Rank to avoid danger.

Dragons born in this era have grown complacent, and don't know how we stood at the top of this world until nine centuries ago, but our arrogance also accumulated much resentment after living for eons without a threat. Even I... participated in raiding villages just for fun after my playmate disappeared then my world turned upside down... had to endure the humiliation of abandoning my body to hide from my enemies and do other things that would make any Elder of my clan kill me on the spot. I think back to the chaotic times after being the sole survivor of my Tenebrum Clan and even the denial to mourn those important to endure the loneliness and fear with the hopes of seeing them again. However, the very survival of our species was at stake since our society crumbled in a chain reaction with opportunists or old enemies taking advantage then I started carrying out the instructions in the Desert Lab and forced the survivor Dragons to repopulate our species.

Things didn't go well at first since I was merely a Divine and made numerous mistakes where dragons ended up dead or insane, but being a Darkness user allowed me to remain hidden while moving around undetected. However, once achieved Demigod Rank it's been so much easier just flying around the world in Stealth, activating the process that makes dragons go in heat using radio waves or directly with magic if they resist too much.

Simultaneously making all dragons go into heat wasn't enough to stop the decline of our species then as instructed by him, resorted to changing their biology for the next nine hundred years which so far have worked well, and our numbers are growing, but still not enough to win a confrontation. Well, the alternative was to collect all dragons then have them pair up as clans did in the past but gathering all dragons in a single location is just waiting to be exterminated, the food is a problem, and they need different environments to rank up.

I took the listed precautions to randomize the forced reproductive period between one and six years and in different locations of the world, but since the other party abruptly stopped the extermination, I decided to use my natural heat cycles of five years. Originally Dragons had their own mating cycle, and it could also trigger when they found the right partner, but forcing it at high ranks always had adverse effects on the body or the mind. One such effect is the offsprings becoming undesirable for the parents quickly, and now that it's time for me to rest until my next heat cycle, many young dragons are going to die ditched by their parents or even eaten by them.

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I'm hated for this, but I wouldn't have to do this for so long if they put effort not to let the young die or achieve Rank 10 and beyond where I won't force them. Though many already have their natural mating cycle synchronized with mine as a result of forcing them for hundreds of years, some still are against changing their gender. It took a long time to get proficient at altering dragon bodies without their consent since making sense of the life code takes effort, but it is convenient having both reproductive organs when dragons are scattered throughout the world. Exterminating a species is easy if you kill off the least number of a gender, and in the case of dragons that would be the female, but if that is not an issue then they have to go after every single one.

Well, one day when our species is not on the brink of extinction, I'll return dragons to their natural state... I affirm thinking when such a day would come.

My figure streaks under the starry night sky illuminating the desert dunes that stretch to the horizon while thin clouds above slightly dim the starlight, casting shadows that make the desert look alive and welcoming as it has done for hundreds of years.

Hmm? I noticed footprints in the sand and stopped to send out a probe until a human is detected a couple of marks to the north then stealthy approached.

Speaking of exterminations... what is a little human dressed like an explorer doing in the man-eating desert? I wondered the reason for a person to be traveling this far in the desert at night.

It is a cute name, but most of the time it's just the harsh environment taking care of adventurers since I don't even like the taste of humans and being forced to travel on this body to fool my enemies is punishment enough. Anyway, I'm not going to confirm if this Rank 9 water magician is another scout...no one must even imagine there is something here besides sand, and I can't even stand conversing with humans... I point my hand towards the silhouette leaving footprints over the dune crests and command the light elementals to produce high energy, short wavelength microwaves.

"BOOM!" An explosion occurred when the body was rapidly heated from the inside resulting in splashes of blood and bone painting a star-shaped pattern in the sand while black and white smoke is slowly being carried off by the wind.

Ugh...I misjudged the energy output with the resistance of Rank 9 and failed to vaporize him completely into pure white smoke, but that was fun too! I admire the pattern adorning the sand with bone fragments stabbed in the ground and the pieces of flesh littered or falling from the sky then once again pointed my hand at the remains turning everything into dust.

I was warned not to take any chances even if nothing happens for a long time because I'm vulnerable during the four-year slumbers between my natural mating cycles and must not let them find me sleeping. I remembered the strict instructions on the papers, long turned into dust by the passage of time.

After erasing all traces that something happened in this place, I send out another probe covering a large portion of the desert to detect any other pests before continuing my march towards the rocky place that hides the entrance to my lair. I was expecting to vaporize more pests tonight, but it seems the water magician was just crossing the desert to train at the north pole... I shook my head and looked at the rocky formations in the distance.

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On the northern parts of the desert, there is a smooth hole in solid stone wider than a big human castle and descends straight down quite far before the entrance of a horizontal cavern extending north appears near the bottom.

Ah, finally here! I exclaimed seeing the nostalgic hole on the stone ground with the sand from the sides blowing into it by the wind.

After reaching the vertical passage, I then flew down to its pitch-black depths. The way down is far enough for this body to free fall more than twenty regular heartbeats to the sandy bottom below, but I'm not bored enough to feel that pain now...

Always wondered who could make this in a desert which is perfect to keep out those who can't fly or travel in the harsh conditions, and even the tunnel below is camouflaged to look like a wall from above. Well, that dragon probably just found it during his travels around the world then made a laboratory for experimenting Magic and keeping records since the conditions are right to preserve paper longer.

I descend to the entrance close to the bottom and walk through a cavern capable of fitting tall trees then reached an enormous dome-shaped space entirely of solid stone with a flat ground and cavities on the sides used in ages past to storage devices or papers in different languages. Knowledge of the rules of the world is valuable information that is passed on from master to disciple or parent to child in the clans and what those papers contained was easy enough for even normal humans to understand. It was a contingency plan to send me here if something put me in danger...it was also made Dragon-size, and most of the research was in a language I could understand to help me reach Demigod.

"Mn..." I nodded looking around to appraise.

I take out the Elementals from my humanoid body then expand them above the floor making a thin sheet and connect them while feeding a large amount of Mana to create a dimensional passage to where my Dragon body is floating while air is being sucked in. Controlling the black square to hover above the floor higher than me, I make it move upwards revealing the legs of my dragon body then once a significant portion was out of the gate, gravity on this side took over and pulled the rest onto the stone floor. At first, I couldn't sleep in human form because losing the connection with that dimension meant losing my body forever since it's like missing the page of a book without number, but eventually, I managed to get used to finding it again.

Each elemental is like a mini gate, and according to the notes in the lab, he theorized that connecting to elementals in another location in the world could allow for instant travel but it would still consume a lot of magic, and be dangerous. Hah... that teleportation would make these seasons much easier...if only I could recharge at mana veins as I please.

"BAAAM!" A black Dragon body that is almost twenty times taller than my humanoid body hits the ground raising some dust while the gate closes near the ceiling.

The space manipulation function of the elementals can be used at Divine Rank, but it is hazardous since it consumes a vast amount of Mana and a little bit of Spiritual energy. Well, the dangerous part comes from having insufficient magic then it will feed on your Spirit and even your very soul through it, but unlike the Spiritual energy which recovers much faster the higher Rank you get, the Soul takes a long time to heal, and there is a loss of memory. Spirit is like the soul limbs so feeding on it is like losing your fingers to cast space magic but let it feed too much, and it will eat up the arm until it reaches the head.

I approach my dragon head with two horns starting above my eye sockets then curving back with decreasing scaled sections and other two smaller ones on each cheek pointing back, but also slightly bending outwards. My Soul the size of the humanoid body's firsts slowly comes out from the head then enters the dragon head and spreads to match all the neuron connections while my Spirit and Lifeforce rushes through my body reclaiming it.

Ahh finally comfortable! I rejoiced rolling on the ground then got up to stretch. Being in a human body is like a prison...hmm? I realize something is missing then bring my tail to the front to meet my twisted neck on the side.

Erm...my tailed touched the dimensional walls again, and it's gone... I stare at the portion of the tail spilling blood then stopped it and gathered all the bloody dirt with my willpower.

There is food in my stomach for cases like this and the humanoid body lying on the ground, but it's faster if I arrange the molecules to make new cells then fix the tail before going to sleep, though there is more cellular damage to treat... I confirmed dead cells throughout my body despite being a dimension with slower time flow relative to this world. Well, the other side is close to the vacuum of space without any gravity, and there is some atmosphere, but I can't confirm since I have no idea how to return.

Making sense of the life code and rearranging molecules is a pain, but I can do it faster with copy and paste by shutting off every needless function then focus on multitasking... I lay down on the side of my body starting on the repair process.

It is a comfortable lair... enough to spend most of my life sleeping here, but I also can't argue with that message on the ceiling... I look up and observe the message carved in stone by a dragon claw that emits a familiar yet ancient presence. "Wait for him Karias." I would like to know how is my name written in a text that feels as if I was the one who did it millions of years ago...maybe he knows something since this was his lab, but the bastard is nowhere to be found! I close my eyes with a sigh then start reminiscing about old times again since that's all I have now and with the soul of a Demigod, memories are in perfect state.

My playmate was born a little after me, in the Veurae Wind clan, 1156 years ago and we got along after just a single meeting, but he was an oddball that didn't act like a typical dragon. The instincts of other dragons made them feel incongruity with him, but I knew it's because he wasn't a regular dragon and often spoke nonsense like saying this was his seventh life or that we lived together in a past life. Well, my parents said he was retarded because his parents made a mistake when creating his egg which is not that rare since modifying the life code it's complicated, but he did stop talking about such things after a while and tried to act like other dragons. I think back at his efforts to blend in.

It didn't take much for dragons to discriminate one another in our Mana Vein City and his abnormality made him a target for the same generation. Though he did fight back, his methods were seen as...cowardly by adults and perhaps all that is what made his soul compatible with darkness.

Bah! What does it matter what method was used to win...what good is what you consider honor when you are all dead and gone now! I disagree recalling the stubborn dragons.

I thought he was mad at me when he called me a monster, but he said I was 'his monster,' and didn't need any other dragon at his side. Well if he were right about us being together in a past lifetime it would explain how we get along so well... it was all the more reason to trust the crazy dragon, and we were inseparable doing everything as the curious whelps that we were. I reminisce about the times where we hunted, slept and even popped together.

Time passed, then he awakened high talent wind and darkness affinities while mine was high in darkness, but he didn't want to abandon the same affinity as me to Rank up faster in the Element of his clan. Oh, his parents were not one bit happy when he decided to keep both affinities. We were really close, and it seemed to be the reason he wanted to stay dual affinity, but I was too young to understand he actually had feelings for me.

What did he call me? Oh yes...he said I was dense...but it is true that I learned Magic before understanding affections because my parents thought that it was unnecessary when they made my egg, and it should have been obvious when he got physical with me. A smile inadvertently creeps onto my face. I'm no longer that dumb dragon that believed you were just curious about her body...Nefiru Veurae Zhuryo, you perverted dragon! I call out his unusual interest in my body while missing his caresses on my scales.

However, everything changed once I reached Rank 7 and Mating contenders appeared eying my talent in darkness, then one close to Divine Rank won the rights to be with me by eliminating the competition. But Nefiru also wanted me...he always did, so he challenged the winner. I think back to the fight I watched from the spectator's area and his knowledge that allowed me to Rank up faster. There was no fight...it was just him being used as a toy and humiliated without a chance to give up until he was close to dying. Perhaps he thought that way would show his feelings to everyone in hopes to change the minds of our parents or the teacher of my partner, but it was just seen as humorous to the spectators. Dragons didn't need feelings, just prestige or power to gain access to Vein's higher Mana densities in the center of our city and clans with many high-ranks gained influence to monopolize the closer spots.

As a Rank 6 against a Rank 10 close to divine, his chances of winning had the zeroes on the wrong side of the dot, but he didn't say anything and just stared at everyone with hatred in his eyes...I included. Never saw him that enraged before, and he probably felt betrayed when I didn't even complain, but rules dictated I had to challenge my own partner then win to have a saying in the matter...which was pointless given my Rank and running away is punished.

I wasn't planning on being used as a breeding tool either and was hoping to get my chance one day but...that was the last time I saw Nefiru. It was around a thousand years ago when he disappeared, then he reached Divine later and abandoned his Dragon body to mingle with humans. And mingled he did...impregnated so many human women that created a race with his offsprings that have dragon features like tails or horns, then it was my turn to get mad and searched for his whereabouts, but ended up destroying human settlements without finding anything. Well, most of his children and grandchildren were either enslaved or killed, but they are a long-lived race too, so a few still remain in the landmass of Telum today.

He seemingly forgot about me, but days after announcing my mate and I were ready to make our first egg...a radio transmission reached me. As we were both darkness users, we had a frequency to communicate, but there was silence for many years... I knew it was a serious matter when he decided to talk after all this time and started by explaining the reason for leaving our city, but his confession sounded like a goodbye as he talked.

He didn't have support from his clan nor could he do much with his affinities, so he traveled the world searching for information and materials to create armors and weapons capable of taking on Demigod dragons regardless of their magic arts. He couldn't win the dragon way, so he tried the human way to force the clans into submission... Ordinary materials would eventually break, but the items he created were on another level and even had the capability to restore mana to the user.

He got desperate after hearing it was time for me to make my first egg and wanted to keep other dragon's claws off, then found a willing Earth magician to help him make a set of armor, sword, and shield. It was a good plan...and it would have worked... Just as he was researching things like the collar to help creatures understand each other or items strong to break standard protections...others were also eyeing his research. Well, since this is his oldest lab, there's no information on how to make those items or how they work.

He was tricked.... Those beings were not coincidentally found by him... they specialized in fooling other Divines, and some of them had immense hatred for dragon kind. I recall his warning about the dragon race impending doom.

After telling me what happened, he explained what would follow then ordered to throw away my pride and run away to this Safehouse in the middle of the desert where instructions awaited in the case such event took place. I tried warning the Elders with the information Nefiru provided since there was a chance to stop the armor wielder, but just as he predicted...it was to no avail and even warning other clans or Dragon cities had the same effect.

I flew away lamenting my inability to fight away while looking back at the colorful light of different magics and explosions that reduced our City of Zhuryoh to blood and ash as all the Elders fought to the last. Currently, our mana vein is occupied by other Demigods, though I could retake it with some help, they allow me to recharge sometimes when going with my human disguise and now is not yet the time to come out of the shadows. I sigh at the things a Demigod like me has to endure.

The last thing he did was making me promise not to let anyone fuck me until he comes back and that it could take some time, but...it's been 917 years since then! Well, he clearly said not to let anyone penetrate me, but he didn't say I couldn't turn into a male and find a dragon willing to accept my size or relieve myself. I comply with the wish of the dragon that caused the destruction of our race trying to keep me untouched.

You seemed confident to come back no matter what, and I believe you, but... WHERE ARE YOU!? I concluded long ago the most probable cause of his absence to be torture for information since he probably had to exchange knowledge to craft the armor, but there are no clues.

You own me some apologies and over nine hundred years of sex, so you better endure when this monster get her claws on you! I close my paws tight enough to make the claws screech thinking of the black and green dragon.

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